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Know Your BDM: Chris Proudfoot, Aldermore

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  • 26/06/2018
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Know Your BDM: Chris Proudfoot, Aldermore
This week Specialist Lending Solutions is talking to Chris Proudfoot, business development manager at Aldermore.

 

How many advisers and broker firms do you cover in your role?

I cover the central London region as a telephone BDM based in Wilmslow, Cheshire. I have an active panel of around 1,000 brokers and I’m looking forward to visiting a few more this year to put some faces to voices.

 

How do you successfully organise and deal with business on a daily basis?

It is essential to try as hard as possible to deal with issues and enquiries on the same day to allow me to attack the day from the minute I come in. Planning your day in advance always helps to allow for a balance of proactive contact with brokers, promoting our proposition and being available for brokers.

 

What issues come up time and time again?

Playing telephone tennis with brokers can be frustrating.

 

What do you wish brokers understood about your job?

That we are on their side. Their business is our business, I will always try to help, fix or resurrect cases, but some things are out of everyone’s hands.

 

What do you think is the most important attribute of a good BDM?

Being honest and available. Everyone is busy, but being available to pick up the phone or going back to a broker quickly is hugely appreciated. The honesty side of things allows relationships to build in a way that shows brokers I am there for the long haul and not just one deal which could burn a bridge.

 

When you’re unavailable to be contacted by telephone, what’s the second-best way for brokers to get in touch?

I permanently have my emails open, so this is the best way to get in contact with me. Alternatively, we have a two-pronged approach to each region at Aldermore so the field-based relationship manager Amir Khan may be available if I’m not.

 

If you were head of the FCA for the day, what would you change about regulation in the mortgage industry?

Timescales between lenders should not vary so much. It doesn’t seem fair on customers to be waiting days or weeks for the simplest of tasks with a certain lender, and a matter of hours with others.

 

What was your motivation for choosing business development as a career?

I had come back from travelling in America and kind of fell into a job within a team dealing with pre-application queries at Platform Home Loans. After a brief time, and due to expansion, I became a business development manager and came to realise I was good at the role, plus the industry is ever-changing which I enjoy too.

 

How do you establish and maintain a good relationship with brokers?

I think it’s about understanding their business and the type of client they deal with to allow myself to educate and help them understand how Aldermore could support their business to prosper.

 

And how do you establish and maintain good relationships internally?

I believe in just talking to each other as emails can be interpreted in many ways. At Aldermore we take a one team approach, the sales team is backed up by a great set of support teams.

 

What’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked?

A question doesn’t come to mind. However, I’ve been on the end of a few questionable pocket dialled voicemails which I’m sure I wasn’t meant to hear and I definitely could not repeat.

 

And finally, what did you want to be growing up?

As a big Manchester United fan I always wanted to play for them. I turned 26 at the end of March and I’m still confident there is time to do so.

 

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